Blast outside house of US contractor in Kabul kills two
18 Dec 2012 6:54 AM IST
A car bomb exploded outside of a compound housing a US military contractor in the Afghan capital on Monday, blowing apart an exterior wall, killing at least two Afghan workers and wounding more than a dozen other people, company representatives and police said. The blast on the outskirts of Kabul sent a plume of smoke up in the air and shook windows more than a mile (two kilometres) away in the city centre.
The security officer for Contrack, a McLean, Virginia-based company that builds facilities for military bases, said a suicide attacker drove a vehicle packed with explosives up to the exterior wall of the compound and detonated the bomb. Afghan police said they could not confirm if it was a suicide attack or a remotely detonated bomb that had been placed in a parked vehicle.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in Kabul, saying in an email to reporters that it was a suicide car bomber who targeted the compound because it was company working with the government. Two Afghan employees of the company were killed in the attack and at least 15 others were wounded, said deputy Interior Ministry spokesman Najibullah Danish. He did not have information on any of the foreign employees. Contrack did not respond to calls or emails asking for comment. Contract security officer Baryalai, who like many Afghans only goes by one name, said at the site that injured employees included Americans, Afghans and South Africans. An American official of the company was seriously wounded, he said.
A reporter at the site saw large sections of exterior wall blown apart and a collapsed roof on a building inside.
10 DIE IN LANDMINE EXPLOSION
Ten young girls were killed when a landmine exploded on Monday while they were collecting firewood in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, officials said. The girls, aged between nine and 11, died when one of them accidentally struck the mine with an axe, Chaparhar district governor Mohammad Sediq Dawlatzai told AFP. ‘An old mine left over from the time of the jihad (against Soviet troops in the 1980s) exploded, killing 10 girls and wounding two others,’ he said. Nangarhar provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said, however, that the mine was planted by ‘the enemies of Afghanistan’ - a reference to Taliban insurgents - even if it had been in that spot for some time. Since 1989, when the Soviets withdrew after a 10-year military presence, nearly 700,000 mines and more than 15 million explosive left-overs have been destroyed, according to UN figures.
The security officer for Contrack, a McLean, Virginia-based company that builds facilities for military bases, said a suicide attacker drove a vehicle packed with explosives up to the exterior wall of the compound and detonated the bomb. Afghan police said they could not confirm if it was a suicide attack or a remotely detonated bomb that had been placed in a parked vehicle.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in Kabul, saying in an email to reporters that it was a suicide car bomber who targeted the compound because it was company working with the government. Two Afghan employees of the company were killed in the attack and at least 15 others were wounded, said deputy Interior Ministry spokesman Najibullah Danish. He did not have information on any of the foreign employees. Contrack did not respond to calls or emails asking for comment. Contract security officer Baryalai, who like many Afghans only goes by one name, said at the site that injured employees included Americans, Afghans and South Africans. An American official of the company was seriously wounded, he said.
A reporter at the site saw large sections of exterior wall blown apart and a collapsed roof on a building inside.
10 DIE IN LANDMINE EXPLOSION
Ten young girls were killed when a landmine exploded on Monday while they were collecting firewood in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, officials said. The girls, aged between nine and 11, died when one of them accidentally struck the mine with an axe, Chaparhar district governor Mohammad Sediq Dawlatzai told AFP. ‘An old mine left over from the time of the jihad (against Soviet troops in the 1980s) exploded, killing 10 girls and wounding two others,’ he said. Nangarhar provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said, however, that the mine was planted by ‘the enemies of Afghanistan’ - a reference to Taliban insurgents - even if it had been in that spot for some time. Since 1989, when the Soviets withdrew after a 10-year military presence, nearly 700,000 mines and more than 15 million explosive left-overs have been destroyed, according to UN figures.
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